In Memoram
by musefatale
Summary: Snape. After the war, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny have a number of funerals to attend. It’s the funeral of Severus Snape, though, that becomes the most memorable. Written in 2007


**Title: **In Memoriam  
**Author: **muselolita  
**Pairings:** Mainly Snape/Draco, though there is implied Snape/Lucius and Snape/Luna. There are a couple of Snape/Other Cannon and Snape/OC that are sort of 'blink and you miss them' situations that are of no consequence if you want to ignore them. None are so overtly stated, however – just hinted at.  
**Warning: **Very, very sad and melancholy.Angst, implied slash, implied student/teacher relationships, implied cross-generational relationships.  
**Summary: **After the war, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny have a number of funerals to attend. It's the funeral of Severus Snape, though, that becomes the most memorable.  
**Author's Notes:**Completely DH compliant. This is kind of a nod to all the Snape pairings I've done over the years. Sadly, Remus and Tonks couldn't be there because, well… you know.Also, I've never been to a Catholic funeral, so if I mess something up, I'm so sorry; Wikipedia can only tell a person so much.

**In Memoriam**

Harry had never been to a funeral before the war. Now he'd been to more in a week than he ever wanted to go to in a lifetime. Tonks' parents had held one for their daughter and Remus, since he had no family left to see over his arrangements, and the two of them were buried in side-by-side plots. The entire Weasley clan, plus Harry and Hermione gathered around Fred's grave on a cloudy Tuesday. Harry couldn't cry anymore by that point, so he did his best to help Ron and Bill console Molly. There were those of schoolmates and fallen members of the Order as well.

As Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny walked up the stone steps to the cathedral, Harry couldn't help but think to himself that he was grateful this was the last one. There was a bit of selfishness to the thought – he couldn't go through another funeral, not for a very long time. The other part of it was simply that he was relieved he'd seen all the death and that it was over now, that things could start to be repaired and go back to normal now.

The doors opened, casting a ray of light down the center isle to the half-open casket. A tall, lean woman with her black hair pulled back into a tight bun stood at the end of it, one hand placed on the lid.

"That must be Eileen Prince," Hermione whispered into Harry's ear.

He felt a sudden tightness in his stomach. That was Snape's mother. He didn't know why he was shocked. Perhaps he thought she was dead or something like that. He never would have thought to see her. But now, it just seemed right. Harry gave Hermione a nod and ushered the four of them into a pew. At first he'd only noticed the woman standing at Snape's casket, not expecting very many other people to be there. But as Harry looked around he saw more faces, familiar ones, than he had imagined seeing there.

In the back of cathedral, leaning up against the wall was Lucius Malfoy, his black suit tailored close to his body and his long silver hair swept back into a low ponytail. To Harry, he looked a bit like a mobster. There were whispers about Snape and Lucius, none of which Harry wanted to believe. At Lucius' side was Narcissa, holding tightly to her husband's hand, a look of sadness on her pointed features. They had been _friends_, Harry realized. He didn't know why that was such a difficult thing for him to grasp.

As his eyes scanned the rows, he caught a glimpse other familiar faces – fellow students, most of whom were Slytherin. There were two Ravenclaws sitting very close to each other a few rows ahead of them – both with shocking deep red hair and golden skin. On the other side of the room there was a boy with curly brown hair who Harry had never seen before, but the way he sat and the way he held himself caught Harry's attention. Professor Trelawney was sitting dead center of the left side of the room, her thick glasses hanging around her neck and a handkerchief wrung between her hands.

There were other faces, some he knew, others he didn't.

"Oh my god Harry, look," Ginny hissed in his ear, jabbing him in the side with her elbow to emphasize the urgency in her words.

Harry's gaze shot to where she was pointing. At the front of the room, standing at the head of the casket was Draco. His pale face was even paler than usual, and there were heavy, dark bags under his bloodshot eyes. He had, very clearly, been crying. Harry's brows furrowed as he watched, carefully, trying to attune his ears to overhear the conversation between Draco and Snape's mother.

Draco reached into his pocked and pulled something out. As his grip loosened Harry caught the glint of something silver dangling from Draco's hands. As it swung out of the glare of the sun Harry could see a crucifix hanging from the end of a row of beads. A rosary; but what was Draco doing with _that_? His hand moved to place it in the casket with Snape when Eileen reached out and covered her hand with his.

"No, son…" Harry heard her say to him. "He would have wanted you to keep it, I'm sure. It was very special to him, just as you were."

Before Harry's confusion had a chance to manifest itself, Draco had thrown himself into Eileen's arms and was sobbing against her chest.

"What the hell…" Ginny muttered again, obviously watching the same scene as he was.

"Snape must have been Draco's… Draco's godfather of something," Harry rationalized, until…

"Hmph," said a low, stern voice from behind him. Harry turned to see Lucius Malfoy's gaze glued onto him. "Naïve," was all he said.

Harry bit his lip and turned back to Draco and Eileen at the front of the room, the woman now softly consoling Draco, who looked an absolute mess.

"He's not dead, darling," Eileen said, murmuring into Draco's silver-blonde hair, "he's just waiting. You'll see him again one day."

Draco nodded and said no more as he allowed Snape's mother to sit him back down on a bench in the front row, where he continued to cling to the rosary as though it were his life-source.

Harry didn't want to think _why_ Draco was so broken up like that. He was the only one who seemed moved to tears in the entire place. Lucius' words, they didn't help what he was thinking either. They just… made the thought more pronounced.

With a deep breath he stood, brushing his unruly hair away his face, and approached the front. He looked at the waxy, pale face of his former teacher, of the man he loathed for years. He couldn't see that man who he hated anymore. All he could see was a man who'd loved Lily Evans, and who had gone to extreme measures to make sure she was kept safe – a man who had did what he could to keep him safe as well.

"Harry Potter," the voice of the woman next to him suddenly quite familiar, almost as though Harry had heard it in a dream but… closer.

"Miss…" he began turning to look at her, "Madame Pince?!" he said, shocked. Her face was as familiar to him as her voice, and came as quite a shock as all he'd seen of her since he walked in was her jet-black hair.

She laughed. "Yes, that's the name I've gone by for years. God bless Dumbledore for giving me safety and letting me stay close to my son," she said, her voice softer and more maternal than Harry had ever heard from her before. "I know that you know who I really am, though. Don't think that I don't know everything that's going on in my library." She gave him a bit of a smile, before turning her gaze back to her son.

"Madame… I mean… Miss… erm…"

"Eileen."

"Right, Eileen… I'm really sorry about what happened to Professor Snape. I was there, I… but there was nothing that I could do."

"He knew that it was his time to go, and he had made his peace with God and was ready to leave this world if it came down to that."

"Was Snape, I mean…"

"Religion isn't talked about much in the Wizarding world, Harry, but it does exist. Severus was quite devoutly Catholic, as am I and as was his father. I think that some days it was the only thing that gave him hope at all. He knew that he would be forgiven for the decisions of his youth by, at the very least, his god – if not anyone else. It was hard for him to reconcile what he was doing with what he believed, but there was always someone there to tell him that it would be better, one day. He never feared death, because he knew it would be better than this world."

Harry stood still and silent for the longest time before he nodded, slowly, and looked back up at Eileen. "He was a good teacher. Regardless of how people may have disliked him, I remember the things he taught. And, in hindsight, I realize that he really did care."

"He was never very good with emotions. He was always either too forward or too shy," she said, with a hint of a smile on her face.

It was so hard to stand up there, talking to Eileen Prince about her dead son. Harry could feel his throat tightening and his heart start to pound harder. "I really am so sorry. Not just because he died, but because I always thought he was working for the other side, that he couldn't be trusted. I never gave him the credit he deserved and I know that must have been frustrating for him. More than that, I'm sorry that I was so surprised to see people here."

Eileen turned to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Harry… you're not alone. But you are a bigger person because you actually have the heart to come up here and tell me this. That's the courage that makes you a Gryffindor. It's that courage that your mother would be proud of."

"Thank you."

"Go, sit, the service is about to start."

Harry nodded, turning and walking back to his seat, giving a short glance to Draco who was still staring blankly at the casket.

The service was unlike any of the others that he had been to before. He felt a bit strange sitting through the prayers and the mass, like he didn't belong among the others who seemed to know what they were doing. Luckily he had Hermione on the other side of him, gently instructing him what to do and what not to do. It went on for much longer than the others did, but finally, the last hymn was sung, the last prayer spoken, and the carriers took the casket from church. Harry watched as it passed, Eileen and Draco walking behind it.

The cathedral slowly emptied out and Harry watched the people pass. He, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny filed out when it came time for their row to empty. On turning, Harry caught sight of a girl with waist-length dirty blonde hair. It was all quite strange to him, the ritual, the mourners… the aura of the room, the faces he never expected to see there. He wouldn't forget this, ever. Most of all he wouldn't forget the love in Eileen Prince's face as she spoke about her son.


End file.
